Star Trek: 10 Secrets About Spacedock One You Need To Know

A floating mushroom or a galactic table lamp are two things that Spacetalk 1 might well resemble

But since its debut in the search for Spock some 40 years ago, the Earth orbital docking structure

has lived on in both live action and animated Star Trek. It has proved to be a versatile structure

with its design used across the Federation in various incarnations and reused footage

The original station itself has become almost as iconic a part of the franchise as its gorgeous

array of starships and is one of the most recognizable structures to exist in Star Trek

So recognizable, in fact, that it would be brought back recently for Picard's final season. Shuffling

across the stars with a little help for some warped tugs, it serves now as the Fleet Museum

at Athan Prime, housing legendary starships from all eras, including a classic Constitution class

This standard home base for much of the Star Trek cinematic adventures, this list will not only

focus on its exterior, but also the interior, as well as its legacy across the generations

both live action and animated. Engage the autopilot, sit back and let the dockmaster

take control as we explore what's aboard, and not just in Hangar 12. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek

Culture, and here are 10 secrets about Space Dock 1 you need to know. Number 10, a matter of

perspective. The live-action appearances of Space Dock are, for the most part, re-usage of footage

from Star Trek III. The approach of the Enterprise and the entrance through the gigantic space doors

instantly became iconic. It's suggested that the doors and the enclosed bay are designed in such a

way as to allow work crews to operate in the vacuum, yet still be protected from prolonged

radiation exposure without the need of enclosed spacecraft such as the travel pods or tugs

In Star Trek VI, the audience is shown the first appearance of the executive shuttle and future

kitbash into the USS Ginolan. It is also the only time in the franchise that Space Dock is

viewed from a ventral angle. This was a conscious decision from the effects team to find a different

way to look at the base, providing a better look at the underside of the station's surfaces

as well as that smaller hub where the Enterprise D would be resurrected in the 25th century

One thing that you won't find on Spacedock but was part of the original concept

was a designation similar to those you would find on a Starship

In the case of Spacedock 1, in the original artwork for the search for Spock

it was labelled as NC7011S, though this never made it a screen

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Number nine, digital distinctions. The design for the space dock station was seen outside of

live action Star Trek with its most significant appearance in the third season of Lower Decks

Douglas Station was the launch site for the Texas class automated craft sponsored by Vice Admiral

Les Buen Amigo. This offered a rare chance to see the space dock type utilize its defense systems

as it combated the rogue ships, although these phaser turrets proved fairly ineffectual against

the drone's Starfleet prototypes. Douglas Station was also used as the launch site for the USS

Cerritos in Mariner's Crisis Point rewritten holodeck adventure. The introductory scene of

the Cerritos in that movie, Pastiche has all the trademarks of the motion picture combined with the

aesthetic of the blue-hued space dock interior as per Star Trek III. Douglas Station was also the

final destination for the generation ship in Moist Vessel, as well as the site for repairs

following the incident with the Pakled clump ships in No Small Parts. In fact, Lower Decks

has also allowed fans inside the living space in the structure and the offices of its top brass

something never done in the movies. Size suggests that this version is more in line with the original Space Dock 1 design

than the upscaled edition used for its various next generation episode appearances Number 8 Ship Shapes in Shot Over the course of its live appearances we have seen seven starships inside the space dock structures There were three types

of Enterprise with the refit, A and D. The Excelsior was shown in Star Trek 3, along with an unnamed

Miranda-class ship in the Voyage Home, and that reuse of the Planet of the Titans concept hidden

in the background. According to graphics later sold at auction, which were used in the space

scenes, this Miranda-class might be the USS Intrepid. Eagle-eyed viewers can spot an Oberth-class

ship present as the crew is transported to the Enterprise-A for the first time at the end of the

voyage home. The registry on the craft is NCC-640, the USS Copernicus. The Oberth-class model would

next appear as the SS Tielkovsky in the next generation's The Naked Now. As the model was

shown from a distance in said episode with no close-ups, at least in 1987, nothing was changed

It's fair to say that no one expected a remaster to follow in the years to come. As for smaller craft, two types are utilised inside space dock. One is the travel pod first

used in the motion picture to transport Kirk and Scotty to the refitted USS Enterprise

and the second is termed as an orbital shuttle and in some cases a Starfleet tug. It would be

seen in the third, fourth, and fifth movies with reused footage featuring it in the first season

of The Next Generation. Number seven, a different class. Sovereign, Nebula, Constitution, all evoke

images of starship classes and the same goes for space stations. Memory Beta simply refers to this

one as a space dock type, while several fan sites suggest it belongs to the Ornal class. This is

never mentioned on screen and in official materials aside from the Eagle Moss Starships

collection. There is no mention of this designation for this type of space structure. Even the

graphics used to detail the ships of the museum fleet state it as a space dock type. Furthermore

attempting to get a definition for the word ordinal also seems to be difficult, with everything

defaulting to journal. Maybe the J just fell off? The first reference to it as this class seems to

appear back in Eric Jackal Christensen's Starfleet reference manual, Ships of the Fleet

Volume 2, from 1993. Fan association Starfleet International uses this as a class designation

for its chapters choosing the design as their fictional base, such as the UK's Space Dock

Birmingham. In-universe, these locations are only ever referred to as space docks. Some beta canon

sources list an Ornall 2 class station large enough for the Enterprise-D to dock through the

main doors, which could include Starbase 47 and accounts for the identical design

Number 6. Afterlife. The search for Spock is the only time that the extensive central dock and the

20-foot wall section would be used as both were destroyed after filming wrap. This meant that for

the unveiling of the Enterprise-A in the Voyage Home, as well as shots in the Undiscovered Country

a new and less intricate interior was built. That recreated interior would also be used for

the sequence in which Space Dock is shown losing power when approached by the whale probe in the

voyage home. The control room area was still in existence for that later sequence, composited with

new shots of the interior. Star Trek V would rely purely on reusing existing footage for the

sequences in Space Dock. The scale miniature of the exterior would return for Star Trek III

4 and 6 as well as The Next Generation. The sequences filmed for 11001001 would be the

only ones created for that series that would then be reused for all future encounters

That first season episode of The Next Generation would also include a new docking port that would

be reused for one other episode. This was a side shot matte painting was created by Enterprise D

designer Andrew Probert and then augmented with tiny people walking across the gangway for scale

Its second appearance would come in season 4's Remember Me, this time as the docking port at Starbase 133, though this was all archive footage

Number 5. Big and Blue As the USS Enterprise stops inside the vast hall of Space Dock 1 it passes by a series of large windows and a lounge All rise and watch as the patched up and scarred starship arrives at the base

Keep an eye out for Grace Lee Whitney among the crowd. This lounge would then house that janitor, complete with mop and bucket

who gets to witness that same enterprise reversing toward the very closed space doors

At the time, the only way to create that effect was to use the world's largest blue screen

which was housed at ILM's Marin County headquarters. In one of those ironic franchise

twists, it was also the same blue screen that was used for the speeder bike and Jabba's sail barge

sequences in some other sci-fi sequel called Return of the Jedi, I think. Some 40 extras were drafted

in for the arrival of the Enterprise, while additional height and scale was added to the set

for the inclusion of a matte painting to the top and sides. The interior wall model of Space Dock

and the USS Enterprise were then composited into that shot. The cafeteria was contained within the

central structure and fans can also spot part of the Excelsior docked just to the left of the screen

In a near homage to the docking shots in the search for Spock, a smaller control room was

featured in 11001001 with the Enterprise D docking through the windows in the background

This would also mirror the Enterprise D's theft by the binars where the ship is seen reversing out

past the same windows again. Number four, a second lease of life. Aethan Prime, the early 25th century

and what better place to line up a series of classic starships than at a classic starbase

The familiar shape of Space Dock 1 loomed up on the viewscreen during the third and final season

of Picard. Its outer shell had now been supplemented with a series of rings in which

famed vessels from yesteryear were housed for display. In Vox, it's suggested that not only

is the Enterprise D stored here in the secretive Hangar 12, but that the Enterprise E may be at

least nearby as well. Viewers know that it wasn't an option for combating the Borg, but the throwaway

line that it wasn't an option teases a possibility that there's one other Enterprise parked at the

museum waiting for Geordi's engineering expertise. Hangar 12 is in the lower structure of space dock

rather than the large mushroom section, thus neatly solving the issue of scale presented by

Starbase 74. Production designer for Picard Dave Blass revealed that James Chung was responsible

for the basic design work on the CG version of Spacedock, which combined with several existing

models for reference materials, the team created a light wave model, then refined it down to what

was seen on screen. Blass also said that Spacedock was towed to its new location by Warped Tugs

possibly by the Wallenberg class seen around Mars during Picard's first season and part of the

Romulan evacuation fleet. The decision to use the structure from the movies came down to Terry

Metallus's love of the design and the fact that it was such an iconic piece of classic Star Trek

fitting with the collection it housed. Number three, state of the interior. For two of Star

Trek III's most memorable sequences, the script required interior shots of space dock featuring

the Enterprise and the Excelsior. The models weren't made so that the interior and the two

ships were all on scale. In fact, all the shots of the 8-foot Enterprise and brand new 10-foot

Excelsior involved compositing images together to get the scale right. They did build a section of

the interior measuring some 20 feet across, with the exterior model measuring in at 6 feet from

top to bottom. The central docking structure was one element while the curved wall of the vast bay

was the second. The magazine for the Eagle Moss special goes into detail about this

noting that the exterior wall was covered in photocopies of the patterning to save time and

money. It would only ever be seen from a distance and no one in 1983 had ever considered the

the possibility of 4K. The beams of light firing up into the docking chamber were created

by Fresnel lamps placed outside. The production team also needed fans to stop the photocopied

interior detail from getting too warm and peeling due to those very same lamps To create an even more unique look a faint smoke haze was used with multiple takes overlaid to create the desired atmosphere and enhance the lighting beams

The model was also reversible so that if you walked outside it represented the exterior of

space dock complete with motorized doors. The big win here was that more detailed shots could

be filmed that could not be achieved on the smaller 6 foot miniature

2. Other uses. Besides turning up in 4 motion pictures, the space dock model was also used

during the years of the next generation. It appeared as Starbase 74 in 11001001

Starbase 133 in Remember Me, and Lya Station Alpha in Ensign Row

Its final appearance in the next generation would come in Season 7's Phantasms as Starbase 84

where the Enterprise-D would receive its problematic new warp core. All of these reuses of the footage shot for 11001001

with tweaks dependent on the planet and location. The latter two appearances of the space-dot type base did not include any interior shots

But its legacy doesn't just stop in live-action Star Trek, as Lower Decks has resurrected the familiar design for Douglas Station. The initial appearances in

The Next Generation were jarring for Enterprise-D designer Andrew Probert due to the huge shift in

scale. The sequel series showed the vast galaxy-class vessel slipping through the doors to

the cavernous interior. Probert had suggested that given the relative scale of the original design

the Enterprise-D should dock at the edge of the mushroom head rather than enter the structure

This wasn't used with the large starship navigating inside, even though Probert indicated it could have attached via a dorsal transfer umbilicals incorporated into the original Galaxy-class design

Number 1. Substantial Spatial Superstructure Starbase 1 made its first appearance in Star Trek III The Search for Spock

It served as the new base, replacing the orbital dry dock that had been seen in both previous films

At a size of 3 miles in diameter, Space Dock could house a variety of starships up to and including the Excelsior class, as well as the odd concept model docked just in the corner to fill a space

It would be the first in a line of stations designed to dwarf the hero ships of the franchise and was imagined by Future Generations director David Carson and Nilo Rodas Jomero

The concept from Carson was to make the station look massive rather than the Enterprise look small

and his way to achieve this, according to the Eagle Moss Starship's collection, was to include interior windows

He was inspired by watching planes arrive at Los Angeles Airport. This helped to replace the original plan to dock the Enterprise externally

That three-mile diameter also, when it first appeared, made this the largest space-bound Starfleet structure to have graced the screen

Adding to that scale, the original model was filled with neon tubes

and then had its external plating layer etched with hundreds of holes

to give the impression of tiny windows across its surface. This in turn meant that Space Dock had to be cooled with compressed air

while being filmed to keep the heat down. Though in terms of size it has since been surpassed by stations

such as Starbase 74 and Yorktown from Star Trek Beyond, space talk 1 remains one of the earliest most striking examples of starfleet design evidenced

by its enduring use that's everything for our list today folks thank you so much and thank you

very much clive burrell who wrote the article that this is based on you can check that out over

on whatculture.com i have been sean and you have been wonderful please make sure that you are

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